Undaunted by early losses, Raymer counts on skill

By Jeff Haney

Tuesday, June 3, 2008 | 2 a.m.

The first two events of the 2008 World Series of Poker did not go as well as expected for Greg Raymer.

After describing how he pushed most or all of his chips into the pot as a solid favorite several times, only to watch his opponent outdraw him, Raymer explained why he figures his luck will change as the six-week poker extravaganza progresses at the Rio.

Only Raymer doesn’t use terms like “luck.”

“In the long run it’s all skill,” Raymer, the 2004 World Series of Poker main event champion, said. “If you play well and you always play your best, you will always be a winner in the long run. In the short term, anything can happen.”

Raymer, matter-of-fact and unflappable even while reliving those painful “bad beats,” detailed his poker philosophy in thumbnail form during a break in the action at the World Series, in its 39th year as the centerpiece of poker’s calendar.

It should serve as sound advice for players competing in any of the World Series’ 55 bracelet events, which could collectively exceed last year’s record of 54,288 entrants.

“If you’re a smart person, you’re going to understand that with enough effort, poker is going to be easier than something like calculus,” Raymer said. “The hard part is the intangibles, like self-control. A lot of players have poker talent, but they don’t really do as well as they could because they lack self-control.

“They’ll do something like flop the nuts (best hand) and lose (later in the hand), and they think they have to come right back in and play another hand right away.”

In a tournament in which players start out with $20,000 in chips, for example, a tough beat early on could leave you with $10,000 or $11,000, Raymer said. In most cases, that’s plenty to work with, as long as you don’t panic.

“There’s no hurry,” Raymer said. “I would wait for a good situation. But if you lack self-control, you’re going to jump in no matter what cards you have. You become emotionally unstable. We call it going on tilt.”

Raymer was standing by the booth of the Poker Players Alliance, a group devoted to fighting for the legalization of online poker, in a hallway at the Rio right outside the main tournament room. It’s one of many booths that line the corridors, promoting energy drinks, poker training programs and the like.

Right next door, in fact, was a booth for the World Poker Association, another players advocacy group. Although representatives from both organizations tried to play down the idea of any heated rivalry, I was reminded of an old Monty Python movie and the animosity between the People’s Front of Judea and the Judean People’s Front.

In a moment, Raymer would join TV sports prognosticator/vice presidential candidate Wayne Allyn Root — or “one-half of the dynamic duo of Bob Barr and Wayne Root,” as Root described the newly minted Libertarian Party ticket — to film a public-service message for the poker alliance.

It was an odd pairing: hyperanimated Root in a suit and purple tie, and laid-back Raymer looking island-casual, complete with a Panama hat. Yet the filming went off without a hitch, Raymer urging online poker players to stand up for their rights and Root railing against “Big Brother” and the “Nanny State.”

Root, never one to understate his case, was saying, “The government is using their power to control all of us and tell us what to do,” and condemning the “complete nonsense” and “hypocrisy” of our political leaders, when Raymer opted to head back downstairs to the poker arena.

Raymer has reason to believe that despite his recent streak of bad beats, he’ll see a reversal of fortune. Right before he became the 2004 world champion, he sustained a “horrendously long bad stretch,” Raymer said.

“Before I won the main event, the only session I won for three months straight was when I won my seat on (online poker site) Pokerstars,” Raymer said. “I won my seat in the main event five days before the tournament started.”

Raymer was planning to come to Binion’s, the former and original home of the World Series, from the East Coast regardless, so by winning his way in he essentially saved the $10,000 entry fee.

“I showed up a couple of days before the main event started and played some satellites,” Raymer said. “Because I was already in, I would have been paid in cash if I won. But I just got destroyed. I played in four or five one-table satellites in two days, and it was just bad beat after bad beat.

“But once the main event started, I only took two bad beats the entire tournament. I played for a week and only twice did I put my money in as a favorite and lose.”

In a nod to Root, his Poker Players Alliance partner, Raymer said, “That’s like one of those streaks in sports betting when you’re hitting 90 percent of your picks.”